Recently, digital video cameras have been gaining popularity. Therefore, for example, taking of events of kindergartens with digital video cameras by parents for example is now common scene. If video taking is done by parents for example in such events, the parent often take their children mostly and, at the same time, in order to describe the events in detail, often take the scenes themselves of such events appropriately. Also, taking video for each kindergarten event, for example, a lot of taken moving images accumulated.
The moving images thus taken may be reproduced by use of a moving image reproducing apparatus at home, for example. However, in reproducing all moving images taken in two or more events, reproducing all moving images from the beginning takes time, for example. Therefore, it may be considered that the reproduction of moving images may be efficiently enjoyed if an audience searches all the moving images for desired parts and sequentially reproduce the obtained parts.
So, a technology has been proposed in which a thumbnail image is generated for each portion of a moving image and this generated thumbnail image is used to reproduce the moving image from a desired recording position. For example, a reproducing apparatus was proposed in which, from two or more moving scenes recorded to a recording media, two or more thumbnail images indicative of these scenes are formed, a desired thumbnail image is selected from the displayed thumbnail images, and the reproduction of the moving image is started from the beginning of the scene corresponding to the selected thumbnail image (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 11-289517 (FIG. 7).
According to the above-mentioned conventional technology, in viewing moving images taken in two or more events in a kindergarten or the like, the reproduction of the moving image can be started from the beginning of a desired scene by use of the thumbnail images displayed for these moving images.
Here, for example, in order to view moving images taken with own child focused in two or more events of the kindergarten, it is possible that similar scenes in which own child is included are often reproduced even if scenes are different. In this case, the thumbnail images to be generated are also often similar with each other. In addition, if the number of taken moving images is large, the number of thumbnail images to be generated becomes large. Thus, in the case where thumbnail images similar to each other are displayed or many thumbnail images are displayed, it is possible that proper search cannot be quickly done.
For example, even if a person focused in image taking is the same, it can sometimes be determined whether a moving image is the subject of search on the basis of a location or an atmosphere in which the moving image was taken. So, for example, in viewing moving images taken in two or more events of a kindergarten or the like, if the location or the atmosphere in which these events took place can easily be referenced, the contents of the moving images can be easily recognized, thereby possibly allowing the quick search for desired moving images.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to allow easy understanding of the contents of moving images taken with an image taking apparatus.